The CPU usage is low-to-moderate (i.e. varying betweeen 20-50%) until a page is referenced that uses Shockwave Flash (ex. streaming video). Then CPU usage goes up to 90-100%. Video playback is slow and stuttery and the whole system is affected (due to the CPU going principally to Flash).

I've tried Firefox, Chrome, and Internet Explorer and they all had the same problem. All three web browsers work just fine until Shockwave Flash starts running.

Mike the best solution is un-install Adobe Flash and leave it off. Flash in a continuous series of security issues in addition to the type of issue you face. An inferior choice solution would be to download and re-install flash again.

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling but had the same problem. I then uninstalled the new version. It's amazing how fast everything runs with Flash uninstalled. Web sites load instantly and CPU usage is minimal. My CPU fan is actually off for once.

Downside is that many sites that stream multimedia (Pandora, Amazon Prime, CBS.com) use Flash. Is there an alternative to the Flash player that works with these sites?

I gave it a shot but ran into similar problems with Chrome. My biggest problem has been with the CBS.com and ABC.com sites. When I try streaming content from those sites CPU usage after 5 or so minutes climbs to 70-100%.

I'm not having significant problems streaming content from Amazon Prime, Pandora, or YouTube using Flash. I'm streaming Iron Man 2 on Amazon right now and CPU is between 3 and 13%. I tried switching to Pandora and Pandora uses a similar amount of CPU.

I wonder if separate/additional loads are created at all the various commercial breaks where separate flash movies are run. Don't know for sure.

Many sites have multople Flash items on a single page. For example, there might be a big Flash box with the video you want to see, and various smaller boxes with Flash ads and other Flash content.

So multiple instances of Flash might all be running simultaneously.

I no longer have Flash installed on my Mac, but when I did, I used a browser extension called "click-to-Flash" that showed an empty box where the Flash content would have otherwise loaded. By clicking that box, I could load just the Flash content for that box, while not loading the other Flash content on the same webpage.

I've also found that many websites will look their content without flash, if I set my browser agent to "iPad."